Google Home is being opened to third party developers

The one thing that the Amazon Echo line had going for it over Google Home was the number of third party apps and services that were compatible with it. Well, that is about to change with Google opening Home to developers.

Google is opening its voice-enabled Assistant to third-party developers to start creating “actions” for the device. Initial partners include NBC News, Buzzfeed and NPR, as well as apps like Quora, Genius and Todoist. This is similar to what developers are already doing with Alexa and the Amazon Echo line with “skills.” The major difference here, however, is where Echo‘s “skills” need to be manually enabled or have a corresponding app installed. Google says that their “actions” will be conversation based. “It really is a conversation — users won’t need to enable a skill or install an app, they can just ask to talk to your action,” says Jason Douglas, Google’s product manager for actions.

Google is already working with a select few partners for third-party development, but developers can still request access to the platform. The company estimates that once words gets out, the number of developers will ramp up fast.